New Friends
by Goldenrod
Summary: (RID)The Autobots start making a few new friends,and gaining new allies, out of some human kids.
1. Day of Remembrance

It was nearly dusk. The sky was turning into ribbons of gold and red-orange. The first evening star was getting ready to make its appearance. The quiet of the Central North American prairie was broken by the sound of a revving motor engine. A pick-up truck was passing through the empty plain. Ironhide was trying to get to the nearest opening to the Global Spacebridge as fast as he could. He was late to meet with the other Spychangers back at Headquarters for a battle simulation. Suddenly, his Predacon alert went off.

'Late 'r not,' he said to himself, 'if the Predacons are up ta somethin', I gotta find out what it is.' Slowly and carefully, he drove up as close as he dared. " Ironhide, transform," he whispered. Making sure he kept himself hidden in the shadows or behind rocks, he snuck a little closer so he could hear.

Sky Byte was directing where Gas Skunk and Slapper were to weld a big sheet of metal. From the look of it, the Predacons had just finished building another really big laser cannon. But this one looked more powerful than the one Ironhide and his friends dealt with before. "This laser canon is so powerful, not even that little trick those Spychangers did last time can stop it," Sky Byte boasted.

'This isn't good,' Ironhide said in his head. Deciding he had heard enough, he was about to contact the base when a streak of laser fire struck the rock he was spying from, missing his head by a few inches. He turned to face the shooter.

The Decepticons had arrived and, apparently, spotted him. "Well, so much for undercover work," he said just before he started to run. The Predacons heard the shot, and turned just in time to see Ironhide making his escape.

"A spy," Darkscream exclaimed.

"Get him!" Sky Byte commanded, and both the Predacons and the Decepticons were after Ironhide. Together they formed a circle around him.

"There's nowhere for you to run, Autobot," Scourge gloated.

"Oh yeah," Ironhide replied, and he blasted away with his laser rifle, hitting all of his targets. Getting a running start, he leaped and kicked Armorhide square in the chest, giving him an opening to escape.

"Oh no you don't," Rotor called, and he fired some energon netting at Ironhide. It wrapped itself around his legs, and he tumbled to the ground. The Predacons and Decepticons chuckled malevolently as they approached him.

Because trying to untangle his legs was not working, Ironhide started trying to get to his gun. However, a foot kicked it out of his reach. When he looked up, he recognized the Predacon leader, Megatron. He wore an evil-looking smile on his faceplate. "You won't be needing that anymore," he said. "Slapper, you know what to do," and the Predacon nodded. After getting their prisoner turned onto his back, Gas Skunk and Darkscream each took an arm and pinned it to the ground. Slapper got on top of him with a tweezer-like tool in his hand, opened a panel in the upper right section of the Spychanger's chest, and started to mess with some wiring. Ironhide hissed in pain when Slapper's tool made something spark.

"His com-link has been disabled chief," Slapper announced, "now his friends can't contact him any more than he can contact them."

While this was going on, a few miles away from the canyon, three human boys were having a campout with their horses eating nearby. They had just successfully made their camp fire and were getting ready to roast hot dogs for dinner. "Looks like it's gonna be a perfect night ta sleep under the stars," Freddie mentioned, observing the sky.

"Yep," Robert agreed, " sure does."

Their friend, Jan, was unpacking his sleeping bag. Suddenly, he could barely hear laser fire coming from somewhere nearby. "Hey," he called to his friends, "did you guys hear that?"

"Sure did," Robert answered, "sounded like laser fire".

"Laser fire?" Freddie exclaimed, "In these 'ere parts?"

"C'mon," said Jan and, with only their hackamores, the boys mounted their horses and galloped toward the source.

By the time they got there, it was so quiet, they could hear some leaves being blown in the wind. Then, they heard voices farther down the canyon. Leaving their horses, they went to investigate. "Predacons!" Jan exclaimed.

"C'mon," Robert urged, "let's see what they're doin'." They took cover behind a big rock to get a better look.

"Hmm," said Freddie, "looks like that Autobot could use some help."

"Well then," Jan whispered, "if it's help he wants, it's help he'll get. I'm gonna go see if I can find any Autobots; you guys stay here an' keep an eye on 'um."

"Right," Freddie and Robert nodded.

"Let's go, Apache," Jan said as he mounted his horse, and he rode off into the wilderness.

He had been searching for about a half an hour, and Jan couldn't find even one Autobot anywhere. 'Who am I tryin' ta kid 'ere?' he asked himself, 'Findin' an Autobot in this 'ere wilderness's like findin' a needle in a haystack.' But then, something caught the corner of his eye. He spotted two giant figures about a mile to his left. With a cry and a firm kick into his horse's side, he galloped toward them.

R.E.V. and Mirage have looked everywhere in their area, but they couldn't find any trace of Ironhide. An hour ago, back at the base, they and the other Spychangers had begun to wonder what was keeping their friend when fifteen minutes had passed from the appointed training time. But, when even Tai couldn't reach him through his com-link, they really started to get concerned. When they arrived at the prairie via the Spacebridge, they set up a grid system and separated into groups. Out of all of the Spychangers, Mirage was the most worried. He didn't know what he would do if anything happened to his best friend. The two were about to contact their teammates when they heard someone calling. It was a young human boy on a white and brown painted horse with a black mane and tail. When he reached them, the boy announced, "Your friend's in trouble!"

The situation had taken a turn for the worst. In fact, it was so bad, Freddie couldn't bear to watch anymore. Robert just looked on with fear in his eyes, unable to close them or blink. Megatron decided that instead of blasting Ironhide on the spot, they try to pry out some information from him- the location of Autobot Headquarters. First, they tried interrogation. But when Ironhide refused to tell them anything, they started beating him. All of the Predacons and Decepticons each took part in throwing a punch or kick at their prisoner.

Ironhide's wrists were shackled to the canyon wall, thus he was unable to defend himself against the oncoming blows, each more powerful than the last. A tiny stream of energon trickled down from the upper side of his lower lip component and his knees began to buckle. He wasn't sure how much longer he could take all that damage, and started hoping help would come.

Suddenly, a blast of laser fire presented itself just as Mega Octane was about to take his turn. The whole calvary had arrived: the Spychangers, Team Bullet Train, the Autobot Brothers, and Optimus Prime himself. "Hey!" exclaimed Slapper, "How did you guys know we were here?"

"Let's just say we had a little help," Hotshot said, meaning Jan who was beside his leg chuckling as he gave a thumb's up. And so, the battle began. Jan motioned for his friends to come to him.

"Let's give 'um a hand, shall we?"

After taking care of Gas Skunk, Crosswise fired at the energon chain dispenser. Ironhide's chains disappeared and he fell to the ground. He was too weak to stand up, let alone fight. "Don't worry Ironhide," W.A.R.S called as he stepped in front of his teammate, "I gotcha covered."

'I'd say it's time to give our new toy a little test drive,' Megatron to himself, and he pushed the button on the portable detonator, but nothing happened. When the Predacons and Decepticons turned to check on their new weapon, they couldn't believe what they were seeing. A big rock had smashed up their new mega laser canon. Seizing the opportunity, the Autobots concentrated all of their firepower and chased off Megatron and his minions.

"A stray laser blast must've caused that rock to fall," X- Brawn guessed.

"I don't think it was a stray laser blast, X- Brawn," said Prowl, "Look up there." There were the boys, smiling.

Later, back at Headquarters, the Autobots were congratulating each other and their new friends for a mission well done. Within an twenty minutes, Ironhide was back on his feet, looking and feeling good as new.

"I don't know how else ta say this," he said, smiling at the boys, "but I owe you boys my life."

"Hey, don't give Freddie an' me any of the credit," said Robert with his hands up.

"Yeah," Freddie agreed, "it was ole' Jan 'ere." That's when Hotshot walked up with a medal shaped like the Autobot insignia.

"Ironhide's right, Jan, we owe you the life of a teammate, plus, you demonstrated that you can keep a cool head in even the most strenuous of situations, and to show our appreciation we'd like to make you an Honorary Spychanger." And he placed the medal around the boy's neck.

On the open American prairie, the sun was setting. Atop a plateau, a white skinned, blonde human boy with green eyes and wearing blue jeans with a black belt and a white long-sleeved shirt, white cowboy hat with a drawstring, and white boots, was mounted on his noble brown and white painted steed. Next to them, a giant yellow robot sat with his feet dangling over the cliff. "Sure feels like that happened a long, long time ago doesn't it?" asked Ironhide. The two good friends had nearly spent the whole afternoon reflecting on the day when Jan and his friends saved him.

"Yep, it sure does," Jan, the human Autobot Spychanger, replied with a modest smile.


	2. Bittersweet Memories

The day started like any other: sunny with fluffy, white clouds. Thanks to the absence of the showers that had been going on for the past few days, the town was now bustling with life. A school bell rang, and kids began to pour out from the doors. Among one of the kids was a young girl with short brown hair, light brown skin, brown eyes, and glasses. This was Nicki Jomei, who was now on her way home like the other kids. Only, what Nicki didn't know was this was not going to be her average walk home from school in more than one way. For one thing, because of some construction going on, she would have to take an alternative route. That's where the second hitch came in.

Halfway home, Nicki suddenly found herself sliding down a tunnel of some sort, like in Alice in Wonderland. She screamed at the top of her lungs as the tunnel kept revealing sudden twists and turns. Finally, Nicki felt herself flying as she exited the tunnel from six feet high. Her landing was followed by about ten rolls, tumbles, and thuds before she finally came to a complete stop. She laid there for a few seconds before she started groaning as she struggled to push herself up. "Where am I?" she asked aloud, as her vision began to get accustomed to the darkness around her. 'It's some kind of underground tunnel,' she said to herself as she looked around. She wondered if this tunnel had anything to do with the road construction about two blocks away, although she knew it couldn't because that type of construction didn't necessarily mean that the crew had to build a tunnel or go underground. Suddenly, she heard something that sounded like a motor. Nicki recognized that type of motor sound- a construction vehicle. Judging by how loud the sound was, there had to be more than one and they were getting closer. When she saw a light appear, she wasn't sure whether to be relieved or scared. Then, as fast as it had appeared, the light stopped advancing and was accompanied with the hiss of air brakes.

"Are you sure you heard something, Wedge?" asked a voice.

"I'm positive, Heavy Load, and I'm sure it came from this direction," replied another voice that Nicki guessed was this 'Wedge' character.

"Over here," Nicki called, figuring that since there was no way she was going to get out of there by using the same way she came, maybe the crew ahead would be kind enough to show her another way. "I'm over here." She heard the sounds of construction vehicles starting up and heading right for her. One by one, they showed themselves- a bulldozer, a dump truck, a crane, and a backhoe. Grabbing her backpack, she ran up to the bulldozer as it stopped. However, she too, stopped when she noticed something very different about the vehicles. None of them had drivers. After that, she was in for another surprise.

"Wedge, transform."

"Heavy Load, transform."

"Hightower, transform."

"Grimlock, transform."

Each of them changed into a giant robot. Nicki took a step back as the orange one that was the bulldozer knelt down on his left knee. When she did, she tripped over a rock and fell. "It's ok kid, we're not going to hurt you," he assured her, and, as if to prove his point, he gently picked her up and placed her back on her feet. As she dusted herself off, the robot that was the crane approached her carefully so as to not startle her.

"How did you get in here, kid?" he asked.

"I fell down that tunnel," she pointed.

As Heavy Load approached her, he apologized for the inconvenience, "I guess you could say we got so wrapped up in some construction and repairs elsewhere, we totally forgot that we left one neglected."

"Hey, no harm done," Nicki said modestly, "my name's Nicki and, uh, would you guys not mind helping me out of this place?" With that, Wedge picked her up, placed her on his shoulder, and began to climb the tunnel she came through. Or, at least he tried. He was unable to get further than the first fifteen feet into the earthen tube since the following slope was too steep for him to climb. The assistance from his three teammates didn't help much either.

"Well Nicki, I guess we're just gonna have to get you out of here the long way," Wedge announced. He transformed into vehicle mode, and Nicki hopped into his cab.

As the escort drove through the maze of tunnels, Nicki kept feeling this strange sensation toward Wedge. As they turned into another tunnel, all of the surroundings suddenly changed. They were now on some kind of bridge or street that had some kind of face on it and arch-like structures every twenty feet or so. Plus, all around them was a brilliant, yet freaky, display of splashes of red, as if it were almost alive. The next thing Nicki knew, they were now near a warehouse that was only two blocks away from her house.

She thanked her guides for the ride as she hopped out, then asked, "What was that that we just went through?"

"That's what we call the Space Bridge," Grimlock replied. The group explained to Nicki about the Space Bridge, the Autobots, and themselves. Nicki listened with fascination, but she couldn't take her eyes off Wedge. She finally had to when he disappeared into the Space Bridge with the others, and she headed on home.

The next day at school, Nicki told a classmate, Koji Onishi, all about her adventure the day before. When she was done, he told her that he was friends with the Autobots, too. He also explained the reason behind it- his father, the famous Dr. Onishi, was taken captive by the Predacons months ago, and the Autobots promised him that they would rescue him. He had been friends with them ever since.

"Would you like to see their base?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Don't worry, you have connections with one of the teams now, so there shouldn't be a problem."

"Ok."

The next day, Koji and Nicki went to pay Autobot headquarters a visit. Nicki had to admit, she never would've guessed in a million years that it was located underneath a parking garage. "Welcome to the Autobot base, Nicki," said Koji as she admired all of the gadgets around her.

"Who's your friend, Koji?" a high computerized voiced asked from behind her. What Nicki found was a young woman wearing a pink uniform, pink and white knee-high boots, and a pink hat that had a gold plate with the same face she saw on the Space Bridge's streetway.

"Hi, Tai," Koji waved, "this is Nicki; she just happened to get acquainted with some of the Autobots a couple of days ago and I offered to show her around the base a bit." Nicki stepped forward as she offered her hand to shake with Tai, but instead, it went right through Tai's body. In the process, she lost her balance and was now in for a hard landing on the floor when someone caught her.

"You alright, miss?" a drawl-like voice asked. Nicki found her rescuer to be a young boy who looked as if he was around hers and Koji's age. He had blonde hair, white skin, green eyes, and was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans with a black belt around the waist, white boots, and a white cowboy hat with a drawstring under his chin.

"Yeah, good save," she replied, " My pleasure," said the boy as he cocked his hat up with his thumb.

"Nicki, this is Jan Crow; he's from America," Koji politely introduced, "Jan, this Nicki Jomei; a classmate from my school."

"You're really from America?" a surprised Nicki asked, "Yep," Jan confirmed with a nod, "All the way from Nebraska." Nicki was just wondering how it was possible this kid was actually able to get from the North American wilderness to the island of Japan when Tai stepped up.

"The Space Bridge is a global network. Its tunnels are connected to locations all over the world, even to the Earth's core itself. That way, no matter where the Predacons or Decepticons strike, the Autobots will be able to get there and strike back."

"Wow," exclaimed Nicki, "you guys sure do seem like you're prepared for just about anything."

"Well," Tai blushed, "we try to be, anyway". Remembering Nicki's near incident a few moments earlier, Jan apologized and explained that the Tai before them was only a hologram; technically, Tai was really a program in the base's main computer system. Then, Koji continued with his tour of the base, with Jan as his assistant. When it was over, Nicki knew the base like the back of her hand. A thought popped into her head and Nicki turned to face Jan.

"Jan, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?"

"Fire away."

"Why are you here at the base? I doubt it has anything to do with a simple visit."

"I'm 'ere for practice."

"Practice?"

"Yea'. See, I'm a member of a group of Autobots called the Spychangers who're somethin' like the ninjas of the Autobots. We have a trainin' session taday. An' that's why I'm 'ere.'

"You? A member of an Autobot team? Get outta town."

"Believe it, Nicki," said Koji, "that story's as true as it goes."

"Gets," Jan corrected, "As true as it gets". Koji rolled his eyes; he could never get Jan's cowboy phrases right, let alone fully understand what they meant. Suddenly, Jan's watch alarm went off. "Oh, break's over, I gotta head back down to the trainin' room," and he took off down the hall. Nicki casted a glance at Koji, who nodded back.

In the computer room, Koji and Nicki, along with Tai, watched the Spychangers' training session on the main computer. Even though she was seeing it with her own two eyes, Nicki still couldn't believe what she was watching. Jan and his horse, Apache, were actually training with six robots that were 50-60 times their own size. As the drill continued, Koji and Tai filled her in on how Jan became an Honorary Spychanger. When it was over, Koji ran to hang out with the group, leaving Nicki with Tai to ask a question that she had on her mind.

"Tai, what do you know about Wedge?"

"Well, he's the leader of the Build Team, a group of Autobots who specialize in construction. His alternate-"

"No,no, I mean his personality? How would you describe his character?"

After giving it some thought, Tai answered Nicki's question.

"He has a tendency to be hot-headed, but he's brave and really cares for his comrades. Like Optimus, he's willing to put his life on the line for them. He wants to prove his worth as a fighter and not just as a construction engineer, something his team feels the same way about."

As Tai talked about Wedge, Nicki's consciousness kept moving from the present to the past and back again.

"Well," said a familiar drawl-like voice that brought her back from her trip into memory lane, "how's that for a 'uman kid?"

Blushing, Nicki admitted, "You showed me, that's for sure."

That night, at her home, Nicki just lay sprawled on her bed with her hands behind her head. Around her neck, she wore her new communicator that she received as a gift from the Autobots. From under her shirt, she took out something else she was wearing around her neck. It was a golden colored crucifix with a tiny diamond-like gem in the center. She gazed at it for a few moments before turning to look at a picture on her nightstand. In the picture was a smiling 19 year old boy with curly brown hair, semi-brown skin, and brown eyes. "Ben," she sighed with a weak smile. With that, she got up and prepared to get ready for bed. It had been an eventful week.

Eventually, Nicki decided it was probably best to tell her parents about the Autobots, and the introductions were made. With that load off of her back, Nicki was free to go visit the Build Team every weekend. Therefore, with permission from Prime, the Build Team would have an hour long break from the digging to just hang out. Their favorite pastime was going to the hills where they could just lounge around. Even though Nicki had become good friends with all of the Build Team members, it was Wedge to whom she felt the closest. Whenever she saw, talked, or even thought about him, she would feel happy and sad at the same time. 'He reminds me so much of _him_,' she'd say to herself many times, 'Whenever I look at him, it's like seeing him again."

One day, Nicki and Koji were passing by a fenced in construction site when their communicators went off. Optimus' face was on the screen.

"Kids, our resources tell us that the Decepticons have made another strike. I need you to get as far away from the anticipated battlefield as possible. A team is on their way now."

"Where's this battlefield supposed to be, Prime?" Koji asked. Before Prime could respond, a laser blast hit the far end of the building frame.

"That answer your question, Koji?" asked Nicki, and they made their break for it. They had managed to get across the street when Nicki saw a pale blue light in the corner of her eye, and turned around. Out from the Space Bridge came the Autobot Brothers along with the Build Team. Once the Decepticons made their appearance, the battle began.

The battle went on for half an hour without much incident on either side. However, that was all about to change. Armorhide, seeing his chance, fired on a mechanism that was keeping four heavy beams hoisted up to a certain height and angle. The beams were now heading right for Sideburn with a great amount of speed. Wedge was the only one who saw them coming. " Look out," he called as he pushed Sideburn out of the way. What happened next made everyone feel like someone had hit the slow motion button. With a terrible amount of force, the beams charged into Wedge; thus he was hurtled toward a wall. Everyone heard the sickening crack-thud like sound as Wedge's entire form made contact, and he fell to the ground, motionless. Not even the faintest groan was heard. As the Autobots looked on in shock, the Decepticons observed the scene with pure glee. Nicki watched the whole thing in absolute horror as memories started flashing through her mind; memories of a beam swinging toward a young construction worker. Another young worker, a leader, ran to him. The leader pushed his subordinate out of the way, but ended up taking the full force of the falling beam. The crack of broken ribs could be heard. Then, the stricken leader was sent flying toward a plaster wall where his hard hat broke in half when his body made contact. His broken and battered body slumped to the ground as Nicki, along with the construction crew and other spectators, stood there, too paralyzed and numb to do or say anything. The next memory was that of an ambulance heading to the hospital with its sirens wailing. Finally, a tombstone with a bouquet of flowers and framed pictures resting on a beautiful patch of green grass emerged in her mind. 'No, no, it's happening again,' Nicki said to herself as her consciousness shifted back to the present. "NOOOOO," she cried out as she held her head and tears started to form in her eyes. The similarities between what happened in her past and what was now happening in her present was too much. Heavy Load finally broke the silence spell as he roared and charged right into Armorhide with all of his brute force, rendering the Decepticon unconscious before he even hit the ground.

The battle continued with the Decepticons losing. Most of the damage was done by the Build Team, who were now filled with the raw power of pure rage.

Heavy Load continued charging into his targets as if he were an enraged bull, Grimlock grabbed Mega Octane and gave him a punch in the gut that knocked the wind out of him, and, like a cat, Hightower pounced onto Rotor and volleyed punches until the Decepticon managed to mutter, "Un-cle."

" De . . .cep . . ticons, re . . .treat," Mega Octane managed to say as he stood bent over and gasping for air. He was still trying to fully recover from Grimlock's punch. Thrashed and bruised as a good number of them were, the Decepticons transformed and drove off with Mega Octane carrying any of the team who were either unconscious or too weak to transform.

Back at the base, everyone was anxiously waiting outside the doors to the repair bay for news on Wedge, who was being repaired by Sideburn. The Build Team would've helped, but Tai made the point that this case might be a little too emotional for them to do the job properly and suggested that they sit it out. They agreed. Heavy Load noticed that Nicki, sitting with her knees bent very close to her body, head in her hands as if she thought it was going to fall off and eyes tightly shut, was sitting at the end of the hallway. As he walked over to her, he noticed something before his hand felt it as it enveloped around her as if to give her a hug. She was shaking. She didn't even acknowledge his attempt to comfort her, although her shaking did seem to calm down a bit. "Are you ok?" he asked. When she shook her head, he tried again, "Would you like to talk about it?" Heavy Load knew that Nicki and Wedge were especially good friends, but he could see that this behavior was something more than just shock and worry. It was something more, much more. She nodded and motioned for the rest of the gang to come over.

"There's something I've been meaning to tell all of you for some time," she began as she tried to control her shaking, "and I guess now's as good as time as any."

"I once had a brother, Ben. He was capable of being a little headstrong depending on the situation; once he had his mind made up, that was that. But, he was also very caring, especially to his family, friends, and fellow workers. He always had a passion for building things, which is why he became a construction worker. Eventually, his boss was so impressed with him, he was placed in charge of a minor construction crew, just like Wedge is. One day, something happened. One of two cables that were holding a beam snapped and fell toward one of the other workers. Ben was the only one who saw it coming. With no regard for his own safety, he pushed the other worker out of the way. He took the hit and was thrown into a plaster wall. I was there when it happened, I saw it happen right in front of my eyes. At the hospital, the doctors found that, along with nearly all of his ribs being broken, he had really bad head trauma. They couldn't explain why he didn't die the moment he hit the wall, considering his hard hat wouldn't have provided that much protection. For that matter, they couldn't even explain why none of the ribs punctured any of his inner organs to cause internal bleeding, which I guess is something they were expecting. Anyway, they did what they could, but it was no use. The trauma was just too great. He managed to hold on for as long as two days after the accident. Or, at least we _thought_ it was an accident, which I will get to later. I'll never forget his attitude on the hospital bed, even though he knew death was slowly coming over him. He kept smiling his same warm smile, asked if his fellow employee was o.k. Personally, I believe deep down he was sad about knowing he had little time left because he would be leaving two parents and a sister, along with some relatives and friends, behind. On the day he died, after the priest was done with him and we were allowed to come back into his room, I held his hand. He said he wanted to let us know that he loved us, that we would be together again someday, and that he would be waiting for us at Heaven's Gates when our times came. A few minutes after that, after he breathed out his last breath, he died. I remember slowly letting go of his hand and watching it fall onto his chest. Everyone who knew Ben well was at the funeral. Old high school and college friends, his small construction team, all of the other construction workers who worked for the same company Ben worked with, even the boss himself. There was even this guy I didn't know who was there and was wearing a pretty formal black suit and had gray, silver-like hair. A few weeks after the funeral, we received unexpected company. It was a lawyer who requested our presence at this hearing that was going to occur the next morning. It was there we discovered that the accident wasn't an accident at all; it was sabotage. The same stranger I saw at Ben's funeral was the owner of a rival construction company. He had one of his men cut the cable to the point where it would eventually snap to make it look like an accident. The only thing that was meant to happen was to make the construction take longer, but the one thing he didn't count on was someone getting badly injured or killed. That's why he went to Ben's funeral--guilty conscience. He even turned himself in to the police. That's what the hearing was about, to determine his punishment. Eventually, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison for sabotage and manslaughter, he kind of got off easy due to the fact he turned himself in. Before they took him away, we had a chance to meet face-to-face. He said he understood that no apology would be enough and he wished there was something he could do to make up for what he did to us and my brother. My Dad told him he already did by facing the consequences of his actions."

Meanwhile, all of this time, everyone had been listening with realization and sorrow written all over their faces. 'I get it now,' Heavy Load said to himself, 'that's why Nicki likes to hang around Wedge,' and he could see that the others came to the same conclusion as well. Aside from the fact that he was a robot from another planet, Wedge was like her brother in every way, minus how often they resorted to being stubborn. And, because of that, the developing friendship between them was bringing back bittersweet memories.

Laying a comforting hand on her shoulder, Koji spoke, "So what happened to Wedge today brought back memories of how your brother died, huh?"

"It was like reliving a nightmare," she nodded with tears streaming down her face. Everyone nearly jumped when the doors hissed open. Sideburn came out with a tired look on his faceplate. Knowing the question on everyone's minds, he spilled the beans.

"I've done everything I can. Even with Tai's help, there's still no guarantee to give. It's basically up to him now."

"Ah no," groaned X-Brawn, "You don' mean-"

"Yeah," replied Sideburn as he turned to look inside the room, "It's a waiting game from here." Nicki, along with the rest of the Build Team, peeked inside. With all of the wires and tubes inserted into his arms and lower abdomen, Wedge looked so weak and frail.

'It's time's like this that I'm glad that Ben didn't need _that_ kind of treatment,' she said to herself. She went inside along with the Build Team.

During the next hour, the Build Team and Nicki just sat solemnly at Wedge's bedside. Every once in a while, some of the other Autobots would drop by to see how he was doing, but so far, his condition didn't improve in the least. Then, Heavy Load stood up, "C'mon you guys, we can come back in the morning." The other two robots followed, but Nicki just stood where she was.

"That means you too, Nicki."

"Heavy Load."

"Yes?"

"May I please stay with him a little longer?"

Looking into her eyes, how could he say no?

"All right, but don't be up too late."

"I won't," and she climbed onto Wedge's chest.

After ten minutes of solitude, she grasped her crucifix, clasped her hands together, and said a silent prayer. 'Almighty One, hear my prayer, please have him be o.k. Let what Grace has given my family and me pass onto him. Amen,' and she signed off with the sign of the cross.

Two hours had passed since the Build Team had left Wedge's bedside. Optimus walked in the computer room, where they were hanging. "No change in his condition yet?" he asked.

"No," Grimlock replied sullenly; then, Hightower stretched and let out a yawn.

"Well," said Prime, "we'd might as well get some shuteye, it's been a rough day."

Just when the group was done bidding each other 'good night', the main computer came to life with a voice saying, "Excuse me."

"Mrs. Jomei?" Hightower exclaimed as the picture came up.

"I'm sorry you guys, but you know I wouldn't have called you unless it was important. Is Nicki still there?"

"Nicki? No."

"I was afraid of that, she still hasn't come home yet. I was hoping you guys might know where she could be."

Optimus and the other Autobots were stunned, they thought Nicki had went home hours ago with Koji and Tow Line. "Tai," Prime called, and from a floating ring that appeared out of nowhere, Tai materialized. "Do you by chance know if Nicki's still inside the base?"

"As a matter of fact, I do Optimus. She's inside Wedge's repair room."

"I'll get 'er," Heavy Load volunteered, and he took off. When he got there, he saw one of the cutest sights he had ever seen. Nicki was sound asleep on top of Wedge's chest. He must've stood there for five minutes when Hightower came running.

"Hey buddy, what's the hol--oh," he stopped as he saw the sight and smiled, "Poor kid, she must've fallen asleep without realizing it." Using his com-link, Heavy Load patched into Mrs. Jomei's frequency.

"Mrs. Jomei, this is Heavy Load. I've found her, but she seems to have fallen asleep. I'll take her home."

"Wait, if it's not too much trouble, I wouldn't mind her staying there for the remainder of the night. I'd hate to disturb her."

"No problem, Mrs. Jomei, and good night."

"Thank you, good night."

Hightower, instead of leaving, entered the room. "What is it?" Heavy Load whispered. Out from a drawer, Hightower took out a clean rag, and placed it on top of Nicki to serve as a cover.

"That's better," he whispered when he reached his comrade's side, and they left.

She didn't know what time it was, but Nicki, for some reason, found herself groggily waking up. Before her, she saw a bright light that strangely didn't blind her. In the light, she could see a man. Or, she thought it was a man until she saw some movement on his back. It was a pair of wings, and they were spreading out. He knelt down to one knee as his wings stretched forward, as if he were trying to engulf what he could of Wedge's form in them, and placed his fingertips on Wedge's upper chest. Nicki could just barely hear something like he was talking, but couldn't make out the words. As he continued to speak, she felt this radiance surging from him. Then, he stood up and, as if he just remembered she was there, turned to face her. She couldn't make out his face, but she some how got the impression he was smiling at her. Finally, she gently fell back to sleep.

Nicki continued on with her beauty sleep into the morning until she felt a little cold. Groggily, she opened her eyes and saw the cover was resting on her waist. "Very funny, Sideburn," she said as she pulled it back up and went back to sleep. Or, she nearly did until she felt the cover retreating down to her knees, "Sideburn, cut it out," and she pulled them back up. This time, the cover was slid all the way off. "Hey," she said suspiciously, "wait a minute." She looked around the room and didn't see Sideburn or anyone anywhere.

"It's about time you woke up," a soft, weak voice said. She spun around, and there was Wedge smiling, who managed to lift his head up.

"Wedge! You're awake, how are you feeling?"

"A little better, but still pretty sore and thrashed."

"I'm going to go tell the others," and she climbed down and broke off into a run.

It didn't take Nicki long to find the Build Team in the entrance tunnel that lead to the network they were going to work on, even though their hearts weren't really in it at the time. "Where's the fire?" asked Grimlock who, like Heavy Load and Hightower, was surprised to see her in such an elated mood.

"He's ok, Wedge's going to be ok," she called back.

"Are you sure?" asked Heavy Load. He knew Wedge was a fighter, but he didn't expect his condition to improve so rapidly.

"Yeah," Nicki replied, "he was awake, he was talking, he's ok!" Hightower leaped into the air and was about to produce a "yahoo".

Except, he forgot the roof was kind of low, so he hit his head and it sounded more like, "Ya-arr".

"Whoa, that's gonna leave a mark," Grimlock remarked.

"Tell me about it," Hightower replied as he rubbed his head.

By late morning, Wedge's rapid reawakening had become common knowledge amongst the Autobots. Even Tai couldn't determine how it was possible. "I tell ya," Jan remarked, "that bot can jump in a lake an' come out dry."

One day, while the Build Team were alone in Wedge's quarters where he was recuperating, he told them something they would never forget.

"I was in this weird, pitch black place. It was so dark, I could barely see my hand in front of my face. Then, I saw this speck of light, and it approached me. The closer it came, the brighter and bigger it got. I also noticed that in its center, there was the silhouette of a male human, but he had these huge wings originating from his upper back. He told me to hold on, that there was still a spark of life inside me that I needed to grasp, and that he would help me in doing so. The next thing I know, I'm waking up and I see Nicki snoozing on my chest."

Nicki blushed and giggled. "I've heard about winged humans," said Hightower, "they're called angels; they're said to be spirits of those who have passed away and some, called guardian angels, look out for certain people on Earth."

"Hmm, sounds someone up there's looking out for you Wedge," said Nicki, and Wedge gave a nervous smile.

"Yes, but don't forget, Wedge was unconscious at the time," Grimlock pointed out.

"Yeah," agreed Heavy Load, "for all we know it could have been a dream." Nicki, Wedge, and Hightower knew the two had a point; the mind was capable of developing ways to play tricks on you if you let it. But, they all agreed that it could be possible that Wedge really did have some kind of limbo experience, and it could be the key to discovering how he was recovering so quickly.

It was the end of the week, and Wedge was back up to full strength. The Build Team, along with Nicki, were standing in front of a tombstone. Ben's tombstone. Nicki wanted to drop off a new bouquet, and the guys insisted on coming along to 'meet' her brother. Seeing the grave site filled them all with a sense of sadness, and yet, strangely, a sense of peace as well. "Hey Ben," Nicki greeted, "there are some new friends of mine I wanted you to meet, the Autobot Build Team." Each of the bots gave the tombstone a friendly wave. After introducing their names, Nicki carefully placed the bouquet at the center of the tombstone among the other bouquets and framed pictures. They stood there in complete silence with a gentle breeze blowing the grass and Nicki's hair this way and that, lost in their own thoughts. Then, they left, all except Wedge. He didn't know why, but he had been feeling this strange sense of kindredship with Ben ever since his teammates had told him about Nicki's brother and how he died.

'Could it be because we have, or had, so much in common?' he asked himself. The answer to his own question he didn't know, but he could feel the sense of kindredship growing stronger now that he had 'met' Ben. When he was sure that no one was watching, he walked up to the grave marker and knelt. "Nice to meet you, Ben," he said, and he carefully placed a blue flower he picked on the way next to Nicki's bouquet. Then, he went to go catch up with the others. That day, he vowed, that as long as he was able to do so, he would be there for Nicki and protect her.


	3. Stormy Beginnings

Disclaimer: The only characters that are mine are Jan, Nicki, Lex, Mr. Kiyoshi, Mr.Raiden, Ms. Robinson, and Ms. Botan (even though the last twoonly have small parts). I don't own any generation of Transformers.

* * *

A white bullet train had reached it's destination, which was a train station. After the last passenger was unloaded, it drove into the far end of the train yard. The engine detached itself from the rest of the train and spoke, "Midnight Express, transform", changing into a giant robot. Suddenly, he noticed a familiar figure sitting on a long deactivated generator outside of the boundaries of the train yard and went to investigate. It was the same young human girl that he had seen hanging around the area for the past few weeks. She had thick dark blonde hair that came down as far as the bottom of her ears and was tapered in the back. She was wearing a black sleeveless shirt, dark blue jeans, and blue and white tennis shoes. Judging from her height, Midnight surmised she was no more than 16 or 17 years old. When she spotted Midnight, she just gave him an irritated glare. She didn't seem at all surprised, let alone scared, to see a giant robot. Midnight Express noticed that her eyes were blue and her skin was white, not quite as tanned looking as Koji's.

"What do you want?" she asked in a deep-for-a-girl voice that was probably the result of annoyance.

"Oh...um..uh," Midnight stumbled, the minor's hostile attitude caught him off guard. "I..was just..wondering why you come around here so often," he managed to choke out.

"I come here to be alone," she replied with the same tone, "now if you'll excuse me, I need to get going," she hopped off of the generator and walked away with her hands in her pockets.

"Wait," Midnight called after her, "what's your name?"

"It's Lex," she answered.

"Mine's Midnight Express," Midnight called again, but Lex was lost from sight, so he didn't know if she heard him.

It wasn't long before the other members of the Autobot team, including Koji, Dr. Onishi, Jan, and Nicki, 'met' Lex, although Midnight always had to explain who she was. Every once in a while, they would spot her at many different locations in town. Midnight Express and his other two team mates kept seeing her at the train station. Eventually, everybody formed a common opinion about her: she's kind of a jerk. Whenever they tried to strike up a conversation with her, she'd talk in the same gruff manner. Everybody agreed that she didn't want anything to do with them; therefore, they all decided that they weren't going to worry about it anymore. That is everyone, except Midnight Express.

Meanwhile, at a house in a suburban neighborhood, Lex was sulking on the window seat in her room. She looked at her clock and saw it was time to warm up left overs for dinner. That's when the phone rang.

"Hello."

"Hi Lex, it's me," answered a deep male voice.

"Hi Dad."

"I'm just calling to let you know that Ray invited me out to dinner to talk business, so you're going to be on your own for the next hour and a half or so, ok?"

"Ok, 'bye Dad," and she hung up. 'As usual,' she said in her head, and she warmed up some pizza. When Lex went to bed that night, she didn't even bother to change into her pajamas; she just went to bed in her clothes. She didn't even slip under the covers either. As she lay there on her bed, her thoughts drifted to memories from the past two years. While she slowly, but surely, drifted to sleep, she felt tears beginning to form under her eyelids and mentally slapped herself a couple of times. "Get over it," she scolded herself.

Over the next few days, Midnight Express just couldn't stop thinking about Lex. He agreed that she did have a bit of an attitude that was making the others resent her, but he just couldn't shake off the feeling that Lex wasn't the jerk she appeared to be. Was it something in her voice, the tone she used? Or in her eyes that gave him a clue? He didn't know, but now he was determined to find out. So, one night, as he lay in his recharge chamber, he made a vow that whenever he saw her, no matter how much she tried to push him away (and with positive reinforcement) he would try to get her to talk.

The next day, after school, Lex rollerbladed back to her house, grabbed a snack and finished her homework. Then, it was off to karate practice. Along with her usual gear, Lex packed her everyday clothes in her bag since more than likely she would decide to either hang around somewhere or just walk around town afterwards. Lex was a brown belt and the date for her black belt test was coming up soon. Knowing that the black belt test was going to be strenuous and demanding on both the body and mind, Lex was really working on her focus, power, reflexes, endurance, and stamina. The Master Sensei, Sensei Kiyoshi, had been watching Lex train during the past few weeks and was impressed at how dedicated she was and how much she had improved her skills. Yet, he knew the real reason why she was obsessed in her karate, and it made him fearful for her.

As she predicted, Lex did not feel like going home right after practice. After changing into her everyday clothes, she walked over to a donut shop. "Here's your donut and milk, Lex," said the lady at the counter.

"Thanks Miss Botan," Lex replied politely. Lex walked by the train yard on her way home.

"How have things been with you lately?" asked an all too familiar voice as she drank her milk. She turned around, and sure enough, there was Midnight Express.

"Fine, I guess," she replied, and continued walking.

"Wait," Midnight called.

"What do you want, bolt-bucket?"

"I just want to talk, that's all."

"What's there to talk about?"

"How about yourself? I want to get to know you better."

"Why do you even care, gear head?"

"Because I do."

However, Lex just finished her milk and tossed the empty carton into a garbage can as she continued on her way home, leaving Midnight 'in the dust'. "As I told ya, Midnight," Rapid Run said as he put a reassuring hand on Midnight's shoulder, "that girl's nothin' but grief."

"I'm not so sure about that Rapid Run," Midnight replied with a shake of his head, "which is why I'm not giving up."

With her black belt test only a few weeks away, Lex started practicing overtime at the dojo. Because of that, Sensei Kiyoshi offered to spend ten minutes after class sparring with her. Since their sparring session looked really impressive, some of the less experienced students stuck around to watch. What made the sparring between the Sensei and Lex so exciting was they were unpredictable. Just when you thought the Sensei had the upper hand with his experience, Lex would make an impressive come back with her agility, cleverness, and reflexes along with her own experience. What some of the students found interesting was, if you looked closely, you would observe that Lex would use either strategies or techniques that were never taught.

"I could've sworn that that stance is one you learn in Wushu."

"Don't you learn how to throw like that in Tae Kwon Do?"

"That strategy looks like Kenpo to me," were some of the comments that the students would make among themselves. They viewed the private sparring sessions as a roller coaster between the two fighters.

"I'm very impressed Lex-San," Sensei Kiyoshi praised, "you have learned how to use maneuvers and techniques that you've never learned in Isshinryu."

"Domo arigato, Sensei," Lex bowed. Sensei Kiyoshi chuckled; he liked it when Lex used some Japanese once in a while.

Later that night, Sensei Kiyoshi was in the living room of his house, which was right behind the dojo, sipping some tea. To him, there was nothing like a good cup of tea after a hard day's work. "You may come in Koji-San," he suddenly said. Outside, the young boy came out of the shadows.

He bowed respectfully to the sensei and, as he knelt, he asked, "How did youknow I was out there, Mr. Kiyoshi?"

"Even though it was faint, I could hear your feet shuffling," Sensei Kiyoshi answered with a grin. Koji scratched the back of his head, a sign of slight embarrassment. "Plus, you always liked to do that 'sneaking-up-on-me' game when you were little." Koji just blushed and chuckled nervously. Personally, Sensei Kiyoshi enjoyed this pastime contest. It kept his senses sharp.

"Well, I've better be going, it's getting late," Koji bowed and headed outside where his bike was parked.

"You and your father are still planning to see our black belt test in three weeks?" the sensei asked.

"You bet, and is it ok if we bring some friends along?" Koji asked as he hopped onto his bike.

"Of course," Sensei Kiyoshi answered, "the more, the better." Koji thanked him and he rode off into the night.

Finally, the day of the test came. Everything was ready, the audience was quietly getting riled up, and the students were doing warm up exercises. Out of all of the students, Lex was the youngest. Sensei Kiyoshi, who was going to be one of the judges, stole a glance at where Koji and his father were. Not only did he notice that there were two other kids, a boy and a girl, with them, he also noticed that the other guests were some giant robots. Sideburn was there because he thought it would be interesting--that is, he did once Koji did some explaining about karate--but, he had an ulterior motive. It gave him the perfect excuse to be excused from patrol, at least for most of the day. Wedge was there with the thought that maybe some variety of martial art styles would make him a better fighter. The Spychangers and Midnight Express were there because they were curious. "Hey guys," Nicki said quietly, "there's Lex."

"Wow," R.E.V. exclaimed, "I didn't know that kid was into karate."

First, they started with katas. Each student had to show that not only did they manage to memorize their present kata correctly, but they also had to demonstrate that they still knew katas they learned through their years of training. Finally, it was Lex's turn. Lex walked up to the center, bowed, and did her thing. She moved and acted like she were really fighting someone, making her katas look very impressive. After she bowed out, she heard someone call, "Hi, Lex." Looking toward her backside, she found the source.

'Just my luck,' she thought unpleasantly, 'it's those robots; I've worked too hard and too long for this, I can't let them distract me.' And with that, she just walked back to her spot, without even a friendly glance toward the Autobot group.

The test went on through the hours. Next was weapons katas where each student demonstrated katas they created on their own with a weapon of their choice. Lex did the sword. After that was self defense against an attacker with a knife. While most students grabbed the arm, and twisted it behind the back, Lex stepped off to the side, and chopped at the knife-hand, making the person drop it. Finally, the time came for sparring. Because there were very few students, the judges decided that after each of the students sparred each other, they would spar a judge. When it was Lex's turn, her judge opponent was a girl with very light brown skin and hair who looked like she had some African descent in her. She went by her last name, Robinson. Sensei Kiyoshi, who volunteered as referee, called, "Ladies, face me, bow." After they bowed to him, he told them to face each other and bow. "Ready," the two fighters touched gloves, "Begin," and the match began.

As the girls fought, they exchanged blows every now and then. The blows were minor, scratches and bruises. However, halfway through the match, Robinson would pull a move that would change all that. Once she managed to get onto Lex's backside, she chambered her leg, and prepared to do a crescent kick. But Lex turned around and didn't have the time toblock or duck; she was hit on the side of the head, full force. It caused her to spin in the air, and she landed shoulder on end. Everybody was taken aback at what they saw. "Man," said Mirage, "now that's gotta hurt". After calling 'time', Robinson trotted over to Lex.

"Are you alright Lex-San? I'm so sorry, that wasn't meant to happen".

"Yeah," Lex acknowledged with a thumb's up and a grin, "I'm ok, and apology accepted."

"Wheph," Koji sighed, "that was exciting, huh Sideburn?"

"Heh heh, yeah," the robot agreed a bit nervously.

"Lex-San," called Sensei Kiyoshi, "are you able to continue?"

"Yes sensei," she replied. However, as she got up with the aid of her right arm, an incredible pain exploded in her shoulder. She yelped and clutched it.

The audience's concern returned, "She must have landed on her shoulder wrong," Wedge guessed.

"Robinson, guide Lex-San to where she can get her injury treated," Sensei Kiyoshi called, but Lex said, "No, sensei". With surprise written on everyone's faces, Lex managed to struggle herself up, still clutching her shoulder.

"I wish to continue this match until my time is up," she requested between her teeth.

"Lex-San, that is probably not a very wise decision. For all we know your shoulder could be broken, or even worse, dislocated. If you continue this match, you risk further injury."

"I know sensei, but I'm sure I can take it. I have just two minutes left."

"Lex-San, what do you hope to prove or gain by continuing this match when you're in such tender condition?"

"Sensei, you warned us that a black belt test would be nothing like all of the other belt tests we've been through. It would be difficult and demanding both on the body and mind. It would push the students to their absolute limit, if not beyond. Therefore, I knew there might be risk of injury involved. Plus, you've always told us that if we got badly hurt in a real fight, there would be no time-outs; our attackers would just use our weakened state to their advantage. So, if we didn't want to get killed, we'd have to keep fighting as best as we could, no matter how much it hurt."

The onlookers and even the other students listened with wonder. They could hardly believe that Lex wanted to go through with the test, despite her injury.

"But Lex-San, this is not a life or death situation."

"I know sensei, but how am I going to be able to do it if I don't condition myself?"

Sensei Kiyoshi thought for a moment, then smiled to himself. It was clear to him now that his student only wanted to practice what her teacher preached and what she was taught.

"Alright Lex-San, if you're absolutely sure this is what you want, I will let you continue. However, if your condition worsens, I will have you escorted to a hospital, even if I have to hog tie you and drag you there myself."

"Domo arigato, sensei," Lex bowed. She turned to Robinson and said, "Don't falter just because I'm hurt, just bring it on." Robinson nodded and the match continued.

Once, Lex tried to throw a punch. It hit its mark, but it just made her shoulder hurt. 'Guess using this arm for anything is out of the question,' she said to herself. The spectators, especially the students, watched in awe; even with one usable arm, Lex was still an incredible sight. 'Man,' Wedge thought, 'I hope I'll be able to have that kind of spirit when the time comes.' The spell was finally broken when the timer went off. As Lex was led to a nearby clinic, the audience applauded.

That same day, the time had come to name off those students who earned their black belts. Lex was sitting amongst the students with her arm in a sling. Her mind was stirring with a negative thought. 'I probably didn't earn it because of the hit I took from Robinson, along with my shoulder' she said to herself.

But, that analysis was immediately proved false when she heard someone call, "Raiden, Lex". She perked her head up and saw Robinson, holding a black belt, looking right ather. "Come Lex-San," Robinson coaxed, " come claim your black belt, you've earned it." She looked to Sensei Kiyoshi, who, with a smile on his face, nodded. And so, on that day, Lex managed to earn her black belt after all.

As everyone helped put things away, Lex said, "Sensei, I don't understand why I earned my black belt."

"Because you did very well Lex-San, besides, I thought it was what you wanted."

"It's just that I thought I would've gotten marked down for that hit I took from Robinson."

"You expect too much of yourself Lex-San, you punish yourself when you make even the simplest of mistakes. Remember, there are times when being a perfectionist can be a good thing, and other times, it can be a bad thing."

"Hai, sensei."

"Although, the real reason how you've earned your black belt today Lex-San is because even when your body was tired and hurt, your spirit was still full of energy to continue. That proved your spirit's that of a true competitor."

That night, for the first time in two weeks, Mr. Raiden was able to come home for dinner after work. "Hi Lex, I'm home," he called as he headed to his office.

"Hi Dad," she called back as she was making dinner. Mr. Raiden didn't notice Lex's sling until they sat down.

"Whoa, what happened to your shoulder?"

"Black belt test."

"Are you ok?"

"I'll live."

Meanwhile, back at Autobot HQ, the Autobots that were at the test were sharing what they observed of Lex to their comrades. They all found it interesting that a girl like Lex was at all involved in something like that. "You never told us that Lex was into karate, Midnight," X-Brawn spoke up.

"I never knew," Midnight claimed, "in fact she never told me."

"Somehow, I'm not surprised," said W.A.R.S, "everytime we try to get that girl to talk about herself or even talk to her at all, she just pushes us away."

"Yeah," Nicki agreed, "it's like she treats us as if we're her enemies or something."

During the remainder of the month, Koji, Nicki, and, sometimes, even Jan began to discover that Lex either was involved in or did things that they never would've suspected she was involved with. One day, as he walked by the park, Koji spied some big kids picking on a kid about his age. He was about to go find an adult when he spotted Lex heading right toward them, her shoulder was completely healed by this time.

"Hey," she called, "leave him alone."

"Stay out of this kid, it's none of your business," said the boy who appeared to be the leader.

"I live around here pal, and anything and everything that goes on around here is my business," Lex replied, she wasn't going to let up that easily.

"Ya got a problem wit' dis girly?" said a fat kid who thought he was looking very intimidating to Lex.

"What do you think?" she challenged, "In fact, why don't you overgrown punks just leave him alone?" That got to them real good. When the leader turned to face Lex with a menacing look in his eyes, she could immediately tell that these boys were not used to being challenged.

"What did you say?" the leader said threateningly.

"I said, leave . . him . . alone," she replied, "Overgrown punks," the little kid squeaked.

"Well now," the leader said in a taunting tone as he and his gang approached Lex, "it looks I'm going to have to teach you some mannners." Lex just stood her ground with a straight expression on her face and took their taunting for a little bit. Then suddenly, she grabbed his middle finger and pulled it back, forcing him to cry out in pain. This took his gang by surprise.

"I guess this just goes to show you that some kids just don't learn," Lex retorted, and she pushed him to the side, letting go of his finger in the process. The other boy managed to get over his shock and charged. His arm was way back, preparing for an upcoming punch. Lex simply stepped to the side as he threw his punch, his own momentum causing him to nearly lose his balance and double over. Lex, meanwhile, grabbed his belt and the collar of his jacket so that her arms were in a crossed fashion, and used what was left of his momentum to flip him onto his back. Now, it was big and ugly's turn. He noticed that Lex was standing right in front of a tree and charged, planning to use his weight to crush her between himself and the tree. However, Lex once again just stepped to the side at the last minute, and let her opponent use his own force against him.

"Gotta work on da brakes," he groaned as he fell to the ground. Lex stood perfectly still after that, then gave her attacker a sharp elbow in the gut. The leader tried to gain the element of surprise by approaching Lex from behind, without success. "C'mon man," one of his lackeys said as helped his leader up, "let's get outta here, she's dangerous," and they ran off. After taking a moment to grin to herself, Lex walked over to the kid and helped dust him off.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"No prob'."

"Do you think they'll be back?"

"Nah, they know next time I won't be so soft on them, so, they won't be coming back."

"You call that 'soft'?"

After that, the kid and Lex went their separate ways, while all of this time, Koji had been watching from a distance. There was something he didn't understand about all of this. Based on what he thought he knew about Lex, he never thought she was the type who would come to a kid's rescue when they were being picked on by bullies.

However, the surprises didn't stop there. Koji once caught Lex at her hang-out near the train yard. He could barely hear some music which Lex looked like she was dancing to. At another time, Jan saw her practicing some gymnastics moves at a playground. Nicki spied her queitly singing to herself. Nicki had to admit, Lex had a nice voice. Finally, as Nicki and Koji were visiting the local animal shelter one day, they spotted Lex in another room playing with a kitten. They suspected that she was a volunteer there. They noticed that she seemed to enjoy being with the little feline.

The Autobots couldn't believe what the kids were telling them what they were finding out about Lex. "Karate, dancing, gymnastics, volunteering at the animal shelter, and standing up for bullied kids; very interesting," Heavy Load mused. He found it very intriguing that a kid with Lex's attitude could actually be involved in such positive activities.

Suddenly, Tai popped up beside him, "Maybe this means that there's a lot more to Lex than she's led us to believe."

"You just might have something there, Tai," Midnight thought aloud. He just remembered that just the other day, he had found an article on the Internet that talked about human development when an individual experiences traumatic events during a stage that humans called adolescence, which Lex seemed to be in. In some cases, when teenagers are subjected to a traumatic occurrence, it caused them to turn into a different kind of person. The metamorphosis was usually the result of bottled up emotions. The kid either believes no one will understand their pain or they just don't want to talk out their feelings, and the bottled up emotions end up mutilating the person from the inside out. They end up turning into someone that their friends and family don't even recognize. 'That has to be it,' Midnight thought, 'that has to be why she's so hostile.'

Later that night, Midnight payed a visit to the only other people who might know Lex better than he did. He tried going to Lex's house earlier, but no one was home, so he went to the next most reliable source-Sensei Kiyoshi. He found the sensei in his living room in his house, sipping his tea. As gently as he could, he knocked on the door. When the sensei answered the door, he was intrigued to find an Autobot. He recognized this Autobot from the black belt test.

"Sensei Kiyoshi, I presume?"

"Correct, how may help you, sir?"

"I need information."

"Meet me in the garden, my friend."

Sensei Kiyoshi had Midnight meet him in the garden because it was the only place on his property that was big enough for the extra large robot. While the sensei sat on a bench, Midnight was just as comfortable sitting on the ground.

"Now, what sort of information do you need?"

"I need information on one of your students, Lex Raiden. Specifically, why she's so hostile towards others, except you, of course."

"Perhaps, you'll understand the situation better if I start from the beginning."

And so, Sensei Kiyoshi explained Lex's story to Midnight Express. Two years ago, Lex's mother died in a fatal car crash. It was a hard blow on both Lex and her father. At first, Lex went through the normal cycle of grieving. She didn't eat much, she didn't go to school for a week, and she wasn't quite ready to talk out her feelings yet. She just wanted to be left alone with her grief. Then, after three weeks of solitude, Lex was ready to talk. She tried to talk to the only other person she trusted and knew her mother as well as she did--her Dad. Only there was one problem. Shortly after his wife died, Mr. Raiden was hardly ever around. He started putting in extra hours at work, going to more meetings than usual, and when he was home, he'd claim he still had some stuff to do, and didn't have time to talk. And so, Lex was once again left alone with her grief. However, through time, the grief turned into anger. Lex started being hostile because she was angry at her father, and, to a certain extent, started focusing that anger on others. But, old habits or routines die hard; Lex just didn't have the heart to forget about her volunteer work at the animal shelter, dancing, gymnastics, and karate. Plus, she always had a reputation for giving bullies of every size and age a taste of their own medicine, in some form or fashion.

"And that's Lex-San's sad, but true, story," Sensei Kiyoshi finished.

Midnight let out a long sigh, "Poor girl, she loses her mother and her father only makes the whole thing worse by not being there when she needs him."

"Yes, and I believe that's the reason why Lex-San seems to try to avoid going home for as long as she can."

"What do you mean, sensei?"

"Whenever she's not at home, school, the animal shelter, or karate, I've seen her in many places around town, most of the time right outside the train station. I believe she believes her father couldn't care less if he came home from work and found out she wasn't there."

"Let's hope that never comes to pass. Thank you for your help, sensei."

"Glad to be of help. What's the next step of your plan?"

"To talk to Lex to let her know she can trust me, and I'll do my best to understand her."

"Good luck; Lex-San can be a tough egg to crack."

"Maybe, but I've got to try," and with that, Midnight transformed to train mode and rolled back to Autobot HQ. It was late, so he'd have to wait until the next day to look for Lex.

The next day was very dreary. The sky was covered with thick gray clouds that threatened rain which started pouring heavily around early evening. By that time, there was not one soul out walking on the sidewalk. That is not one, except Lex. Lex was wearing a grey fleece, hooded sweatshirt she brought with her and forgot to bring an umbrella when she went out for her aimless walk. Despite how wet she was getting, she didn't pay it any mind.

Elsewhere, Koji was in his house talking to his friends via com-link.

"Sorry Sideburn, but it looks like you won't be looking for any red sports cars tonight."

"Oh well, tomorrow's another day."

"Man, whoever came up with the word 'tempest' to describe a night like this had the right idea. All we're missing is thunder, lightning, and reports about tidal waves."

"Tell me about it, I won't be surprised if this storm doesn't let up for a whole week."

That's when the doorbell rang.

"Hey Sideburn, there's somebody at the door, I'm going to have to call you back."

"Talk to 'ya later, Koji."

When Koji answered the door, there was a man with black hair who had a worried look on his face. "Excuse me son, but have you seen my daughter anywhere around town today?" he asked as he held up a picture. Koji nearly gasped when he saw the girl in the picture--it was Lex.

"I'm sorry sir, but I haven't seen your daughter all day," he answered.

"Well, if you happen to see her," he said as he reached into his pocket, "here's a number where you can call me," and he handed Koji a business card.

"Sure," was all Koji could say as the man ran back to his car. Heading back into his room, Koji called Optimus Prime.

Prime had every Autobot who could handle the stormy conditions, including himself, out on the streets. With the combination of Koji's report of Lex gone missing and news reports of the storm getting worse, he too was worried about Lex. During all of this time, Midnight Express explained Lex's story to his friends. "Boy," Sideburn mused, "that kid's been through a lot more than we thought."

"Yeah," Wedge agreed over the com-link, "first her Mom dies, then her Dad just makes the whole thing worse for his daughter."

"If that kid did run away," W.A.R.S cut in, "I don't really blame blame her, under the circumstances." Meanwhile, in another part of town, Hotshot was continuing his part of the search when he spotted a car on the side of the road. Then, a man started waving his arms and calling out.

"I might not be able to do much for his car," he said to himself, "but at least I can give him a ride to a dry place." He stopped right in front of the man.

The human looked into the car, expecting to find a driver; but when he didn't, he was nearly flabergasted. Suddenly, the car opened its door all by itself, and he heard a voice say, "Hop in." Unsure of what to do, the man just stood there; that is he did until the door pushed him in and closed. "Don't forget to buckle up," the voice spoke again. The passenger wasn't sure about it before, but now he was convinced that the voice was coming from the car itself.

"Who are you and where are you taking me?" he asked. A computer that he didn't notice before switched on and there was a robot with a light greyish-silver head and mouthplate with a blue optic band.

"Name's Hotshot, I'm only taking you to a place where you can get dried off. I've already contacted a friend of mine to come pick up your car."

"Say, you're one of those Autobots I've heard about, aren't you?"

"Yep, and you're Mr. Raiden, I presume."

"How did you know?"

"A human friend of ours, whom you've made contact with earlier tonight, described you to us and you fit the description."

"Look, I really do appreciate your help, but I've got a daughter to find."

"We know. In fact, that's why we're out in this storm. Why don't you tell me what happened?"

Mr. Raiden came home from work to find a note from his daughter. 'Went for a walk' was all it said. Mr. Raiden just assumed that his daughter would be back soon, so he went straight to work at his computer. When it started raining, he suspected that Lex would be coming through the door any minute. However, when the rainfall got worse and the news began reporting something about a storm, he put on his raincoat and went looking for her. Unfortunately, he didn't know the first place to look for her, so he started stopping at as many houses and stores as he could in hopes of finding someone who might be able to give him a clue to her whereabouts. So far, he had no luck. In his haste to find Lex, he totally forgot about his car's fuel supply.

"Do you think your daughter ran away?"

"I don't know."

"Were a lot of her belongings gone?"

"I don't know, I never went into her room to see."

A moment of silence, then Mr. Raiden spoke again, "I just don't understand why she didn't come home as soon as it started raining."

"I do," said Hotshot, "It's because she's mad at you."

"Why would she be mad? I'm always there for her."

"No you're not, you're always at work. You see Mr. Raiden, after your wife died, you didn't let yourself get involved in anything but your job. Everytime your daughter tried to talk to you, you'd push her aside with the excuse that you had too much stuff to do. So you see Mr. Raiden, if you weren't so unnecessarily engrossed in your job, you wouldn't have this problem. You only have yourself to blame for all of this."

Hotshot said all of that with a stern tone, to make sure it got into Mr. Raiden's head. What Hotshot pointed out made Mr. Raiden hang his head in shame; the robot was right, and he knew it. These two long years, his child was all alone with her grief, and he didn't even notice because he was too busy dealing with his the only way he knew--his job. Work was the only place where he could take his mind off of his suffering, for he found that whenever he let his mind drift to the memories of his beloved wife, it just tore him apart that she was no longer there.

Hotshot took Mr. Raiden to Autobot HQ. As much as he wanted to, Mr. Raiden knew he couldn't help in the search for his daughter. After he got as much of himself dried off as he could, Mr. Raiden sat on the floor sullenly with his back leaning on the wall. He had his knees pulled up to his chest, and all he could think about was his daughter. He had already lost his wife, he couldn't afford to lose Lex.

All of this time, Lex was sitting on top of a large garbage can in an alley somewhere in town, looking at her feet. By now, she was drenched from the rain. As much as she tried to push them out of her mind, the only thoughts that were going through her head were those of her Dad. She kept remembering the kind of man he once was. Her father was the kind of guy that one would describe as a family man. He would rather spend his time with his family than do anything else. 'But it's different now,' she thought, 'he's changed, he no longer cares about anything.' This was getting to be too much; she hopped off the garbage, and just ran. Suddenly, she tripped on something and fell. As she caught herself, a stinging hurt on her knee made her hiss in pain. She took a look and saw that her jeans were torn and her knee was slightly bleeding. Then, Lex just couldn't hold back the tears any more. It wasn't from the pain of the wound that did it, it was the memory of how things used to be, things that would never be again.

Back at Autobot HQ, Mr. Raiden still hadn't moved from his spot. In fact, he barely even moved at all. A lot of things were going through his head, things that were related to his daughter: Was she ok? Will the Autobots find her? Will she forgive him? Was it possible they could set things right? 'Please, have my daughter be safely returned to me,' he prayed. If anything happened to his daughter, he would never forgive himself.

Outside, Midnight Express was searching on foot for Lex. He had already searched the dojo and the train station, he even checked her house in case she came home while her father was gone. Now, for some strange reason, he kept getting this urge to go back to the train station. When he got there, he found Sideburn and Koji were there also. "What are you guys doing here?" he asked.

"We thought we might find Lex here," Koji replied.

"Have you had any luck?" asked Sideburn.

"No, how about you?"

"Nada."

Suddenly, Koji caught something in the corner of his eye, " Hey, what's that?" The robots turned to see a figure sitting on a deactivated generator.

"It's Lex," Midnight gasped. Lex was lost in her thoughts again when she heard heavy footsteps coming her way. "Hey," she heard the familiar voice say.

'Oh no,' she said to herself, 'not him again,' she looked up, and sure enough, there was the mostly blue and white robot she had found to be nothing but a pain.

"Why don't we get under some cover, and get you dried off. You look like you've been out here for hours."

"You really don't know when to quit, do you?"

"Let me just say I know when to get out of the rain."

Reluctantly, Lex hopped off of the generator, and walked to where Sideburn and Koji were with Midnight Express right behind her. She sat against a pillar without even saying a word. Koji took out a blanket from his backpack. He brought it, figuring that by the time they found Lex, she'd need it. When he wrapped it around her, she didn't even move or glance at him. It wasn't until he took a seat onto Sideburn's waist that Lex grabbed pieces of blanket, cocooned herself in it as best as she could, and glanced at him. Despite how hostile her expression looked, Koji believed that the glance was her silent way of saying 'thank you'. "What happened to your leg?" asked Sideburn. He was the first to notice Lex's bleeding knee.

"I fell," she simply replied, not even bothering to meet his gaze.

Midnight Express knelt down to get a closer look, "It doesn't look serious, but we should clean it and put on a bandage to keep it from getting infected." Koji poured water onto the wound from a water bottle, and used a piece of cloth to cover it. It would have to do until Tai could take a look at it.

"Well," he said when he was done, "we'd might as well head back to headquarters."

"Why there?" Lex said with a quizzical expression on her face.

"'Cause it's a better place to get out of the cold and rain than it is here," answered Sideburn.

"Plus," Midnight joined in, "that's where your father is."

"Oh boy," Lex replied unceremoniously. It was now obvious to the group that Lex was not at all interested in coming, even if it meant a good chance to get out of the rain and cold. Then, Midnight had an idea.

"Sideburn, why don't you go ahead and take Koji home. Lex and I need to talk alone." Sideburn and Koji nodded, Sideburn transformed, Koji hopped in, and the two headed out. Once they were out of sight, Midnight turned back to Lex. "I hear you're into gymnastics and like to volunteer at the animal shelter," he said, trying to strike up a conversation.

"Yeah," Lex simply replied.

"How long?"

"The gymanstics I've done since I was nine. The volunteering, since I was fourteen."

"I hear you're pretty good at your gymnastics."

"I was once on my school's demo team."

"I have to admit, volunteering at the animal shelter isn't exactly something I thought I would hear of you being involved in."

"Hanging out with the animals cools me off. They have all of the love in the world to give."

"Another thing I never thought I'd hear that you're involved in is protecting kids from bullies. Why?"

Lex finally stopped staring at the ground and faced Midnight. She didn't know where he got all of this information, but she didn't care. She had to admit, it was kind of nice to have someone to talk to. Even though it was faint and barely noticeable, Midnight saw, tugging at the corner of her mouth, was a smile. It wasn't just a friendly smile, it was a mischievous kind of friendly smile. However, as fast as it had come, it disappeared and she lowered her head.

"Let me just say I don't like it when overgrown punks don't pick on someone their own size."

Midnight believed now was the time for the kill. It was time for the counseling to begin.

"You feel like you have nowhere to go, don't you?"

"Look, my Mom died in a car accident two years ago and my Dad doesn't care a thing about me, ok?"

"Somehow, I doubt that's true."

"Why?"

"Because, first of all, all fathers care for their children, though some of them have peculiar ways of showing it."

"What do you know about fathers? You don't even have one."

Midnight knew Lex had a point. Like all Autobots, he was built off of the assembly line and given life by the Allspark, Vector Sigma. He had a creator who, in a cosmic sense, functioned like both of his parents. But, he guessed to Lex that didn't count as actually having a mother and a father.

"I might not have an actual 'father', but I see human fathers all of the time. Once in a while, they'll talk to their friends about their children. Sometimes they'll talk about their accomplishments, how proud of them they are, or a certain trip they and their children have planned for the weekend."

When Lex didn't reply, he continued on.

"Second, your father really does care about you because he's been looking for you."

Lex perked up and turned her head up to face him. She had a surprised look on her face.

"Really?"

"Really, and he's very worried about you."

"Well, he had a funny way of showing that he cared that much."

"I don't mean to sound scolding or anything, but didn't it ever occur to you that your father's always trying to keep himself occupied by work was his way of grieving?"

Lex just couldn't take it any more. All of this time, she was fighting back tears but, once again, they won the battle. Midnight could see the tears on the corner of her eye.

"It's ok, you can tell me."

"I miss my Mom very much. In fact, there's barely even a day that I don't think about her. A few days after she passed away, I just didn't feel I could focus on school or anything like that, so I was given permission to stay home for a week. When I finally calmed down a bit and was ready to talk to my Dad about it, he was already spending too much time on work. He was never around anymore. It drove me crazy to be all alone with my grief, so I guess I decided that it was better to be angry at my Dad and just about everything else then to feel sorry for myself."

As Midnight listened, his very first suspicions about Lex were now proven facts. Deep inside the shell of uncaring and hostility was a person who was alone and hurt. A person who wanted somebody who would be willing to help her heal by listening to her talk out her feelings. While Lex let her tears flow, Midnight cupped his hand around her and gently guided her upper body towards his lower hip. This foreign, yet familiar, action made Lex feel a little better. It had been so long since she received a hug. She cuddled up closer to him, and he gently caressed her side and back. Lex felt like a great weight was lifted off her chest, it was so relieving. It was nice to have someone to confide in. 'Maybe he's not so bad after all,' she thought to herself.

"Now then," Midnight said with a smile, "what do you say we go see your father?"

"Yeah, sure," Lex replied as she got up. Midnight could tell by the tone she used that Lex was not quite out of the woods yet; her attitude was still there, but it was diminishing. He didn't mind it though, he understood that the attitude had been her way of life for the past two years; and when something becomes apart of your way of life, it's not that easy to dismiss. Transforming into train mode, and letting Lex get inside, Midnight used the Space Bridge to get to Autobot headquarters.

"Already sounds like we can expect good changes from you."

"Tell me about it, I'm tired of being angry all of the time."

Midnight noticed something else in the tone Lex used, it wasn't as gruff-sounding as it usually was. It sounded as if it was between the gruff tone and her normal tone.

Back at HQ, Mr. Raiden was at his little spot on the floor, his eyes drooping. He was about to doze off when he heard someone call, "Dad." He looked, and there was Lex running towards him as she let the blanket drop from her body.

"Lex?" he called back and embraced his daughter in his arms. As Mr. Raiden asked her where she had been and explained that he was worried sick about her, Lex noticed that his face was a little more pink than usual, an indication to her that he was crying earlier.

"Are you alright? Are you ok Lex?"

"It's ok Dad, really, I'm ok"

"What about your leg?" Midnight asked as he pointed. Both Lex and her father looked at the piece of cloth wrapped around her knee.

"Oh, I guess I forgot about that," Lex said with a small embarrassed smile.

"Does it hurt?" Mr. Raiden asked, and Lex shook her head. Suddenly, a floating mechanical ring appeared, and underneath it, a young looking woman in a pink and white uniform and boots materialized.

"Still, we should take a look at it," she insisted in a high, squeaky computerized voice.

"Who are you?" Lex couldn't help but ask.

"Oh, sorry, I'm called Tai," Tai introduced herself, "you must be Lex Raiden, you've become very popular around here."

"Is your name short for something?" Mr. Raiden asked as Tai started scanning Lex's knee.

"Affirmitive," Tai replied, "it's short for 'tactical artificial intelligence'."

"Makes perfect sense, well, thanks," Lex said after Tai was done and extended her hand to shake Tai's. However, her hand ended up going right through Tai's lower arm and she pulled back with a startled expression.

"Sorry," Midnight apologized, "I guess I should have warned you, that form you see in front of you is just a hologram." Lex took another good look and saw that Tai did look a little transparent.

"You see," Tai started to explian with a friendly smile, "I'm actually a program in the base's main computer, this form is just a little something for you to identify me with."

Lex nodded, "Could've fooled me."

"Come on kiddo, let's go home, we've had a rough night," Mr. Raiden said with a smile, and Lex nodded. Midnight and Tai watched them as they headed to where their car was stored.

"Think they'll be ok now, Midnight?"

"Uh-huh, I'm sure they'll be able to work things out."

Meanwhile, back at their house, Lex and her Dad were sipping some cocoa. "So," Mr. Raiden said a little nervously, "how'd you like to do something tomorrow?"

Lex perked and looked at her Dad, "You serious?"

"Absolutely, although I'm not sure how I'm going to explain my absence to work."

"You could call in sick."

Mr. Raiden chuckled.

"Oh no thank you, I'm not going to go that far."

After eyeing each other for a moment, they burst out laughing. It was the first good laugh and meaningful talk they've shared in a long, long time.


	4. Lessons on Friendship

It was a bright, sunny morning in the city. Young Koji was riding his bike in the skate park when he spotted something in the corner of his eye- or rather, someone. "Hi, Lex," he waved.

The blonde stopped and replied, "Hi, Runt," as she offered a weak wave and continued blading down the path. Koji watched her go with a quizzical look on his face.

It had been about four weeks since that stormy night when the Autobots succeeded in helping Mr. Raiden find Lex. After that, he thought she would start opening up to him as well as to the other Autobots. Unfortunately, that wasn't really the case. Though she was no longer as hostile as she used to be, she still kept to herself almost all of the time. 'She's probably still living on what's left of the anger she built up those two years,' he remembered Midnight Express explaining once, 'And, when something becomes a part of your life, it can be hard to let go.' Koji admitted to himself that he kind of understood what that meant and what Lex had to have gone through that whole time. Then, his thoughts flashed back to the time Lex started calling Nicki, Jan, and himself by pet-names; Nicki was 'Pip-Squeak', Jan was 'Cowboy', and he was 'Runt'. He had to admit, even though it was a little weird at first, he and his friends were getting used to being called by those names. Still, there were times when he wondered why she still kept to herself. He knew she knew the team was more than willing to be friends with her; the problem was she wasn't very open to them. All they'd get out of her was, at the most, a sentence or two.

That evening, Mr. Raiden made dinner while Lex finished her homework. True to his promise, he started spending much less time at work and more time at home so he could be with his daughter. Even though she had made some improvements, he knew she still had a little ways to go. Finally, dinner was ready.

"This roast is pretty good, Dad."

"Thank you, I had a good teacher."

"Well, when you're on your own for almost the entire day and you know that someone is going to be expecting dinner when they get home, you gotta know or learn some recipes."

"Hey, I thought we agreed we weren't going to dwell on that again."

She giggled mischievously.

The next day, Lex was enjoying the view atop a cliff at the seashore. As she inhaled a deep breath of salty sea air, she closed her eyes and listened to a gull cawing. This was one of her favorite places in the entire world; it was just the perfect setting for her to just relax and open her mind. Suddenly, she heard something that sounded like laser fire and ran to investigate.

The Autobot brothers were involved in a battle with the Predacons, which was a bit of a difference for them. Normally, Megatron sent the Decepticons to do the dirty work. "Guys," X- Brawn called to his siblings, "we can't let'um get tothayt oil tanker."

'So that's what they're after,' thought Lex as she watched the fight. She was told about the Predacons and Decepticons before, but this was the first time she'd seen them live. Before she realized it, a stray laser blast hit the hill she was standing on and weakened it to the point where it couldn't support her weight. With a yell, she slid down into the battlefield. When she looked up after her little bumpy ride, she saw the Predacon, Gas Skunk, towering above her. What really made her shake on the inside was the evil toothy grin and he was looking right at her.

"I'll bet if we take this kid hostage, those dumb Autobots won't even dare try to stop us from getting that energy," and he reached down with his huge hand. That's when Lex got an idea; she clutched a rock with her hand and was about to throw it when a giant robot rammed into the Predacon.

"You keep your filthy hands away from her Gas Skunk," the robot ordered with fury. Lex recognized Midnight's voice. She noticed in the corner of her eye that from thepale blue light of a Space Bridge portal,came Midnight's fellow trains, Railspike and Rapid Run.

"Railspike, transform."

"Rapid Run, transform."

That's when the Predacons just ran to the water to try and stop the ship with the Autobots after them. However, the Predacons had too much of a head start. "We'll never catch up to them before they reach the water," called Prowl. Then, Lex remembered she still had the rock in her hand. She was just about to throw it at a cliffside when it collapsed, right on the Predacons.

'Guess they didn't need my help after all,' she thought as she dropped the rock.

"Are you alright Lex?" Midnight asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied.

Just as she was about to walk away, Railspike called, "Wait, can we offer you a ride home?"

"No thanks," she politely declined, "my Dad will be here soon to pick me up." So, the Autobots transformed and entered the Space Bridge, all except Sideburn, who was stopped by Lex.

"Hey, wait, Sideburn."

"What is it, Lex?"

"I could use a boost back to the top of the hill."

With a chuckle, Sideburn transformed to robot mode and gently lifted Lex to the top of the hill.

Later that day, at the Predacon's base, Megatron was not very happy. "You blundering idiots, I should've known better than to trust you with such a mission." The Predacons cowered in fear as the Decepticons just stood off to the side, silently chuckling at the Predacon's predicament. "We'll try again at a power station that's just on the boundaries of town," Megatron announced, "And, Scourge, you and your Decepticons shall recover that energy for me."

"As you command, Megatron," Scourge bowed. However, Scourge smiled inwardly to himself. It would only be a matter of time before he and the Decepticons could finally make their move against Megatron.

That night, the Decepticons got to work on their plan. They took the power station by surprise and gathered as much energy as they could carry. However, the Autobots arrived. The task force included Team Bullet Train, the Spychangers, and Optimus Prime himself. 'Perfect,' thought Scourge, 'this is my chance to take down Optimus Prime once and for all,' and the battle began.

A few blocks away, Lex was getting her rollerblades on when she heard laser fire and saw lights. 'Sounds like another battle,' she said to herself. She had not skated more than three blocks away from the power station when something came crashing down in front of her. It was Crosswise. "Are you ok?" asked Lex.

"Affirmative," he groaned, "but stay back." She took cover in an alley and was about to try and make a break for it when she noticed that the battlefield had been extended another few blocks. Now, all of Lex's possible exits were blocked by either debris or fighting robots and the alley was a dead end. From her post, Lex saw that Midnight was taking on Mega Octane, himself.

'He won't be a problem for Midnight to handle,' she thought, 'he's bigger than that over-grown bolt bucket.' However, that all changed when two huge beams fell on top of Midnight. Not only did they pin him to the ground, but they also pinned his arms to his sides. The beams were heavy, even for him, and Mega Octane knew that. " I've gotcha now, Autobot," he said as he lowered his twin back-mounted cannons. Lex watched in horror as she prayed that something would happen to help Midnight, and it did. A laser blast hit Mega Octane's twin laser cannons, rendering them useless. The one who fired the shot was the only Autobot who was smiling: R.E.V. Then, Midnight saw something heading right for the Spychanger.

"R.E.V. look out!" he called; but his warning came too late, thus, R.E.V. wasn't left any time to react. Under a huge, heavy slab of metal, R.E.V. found himself in pretty much the same predicament as Midnight Express.

"I'll take care of you after I'm done with your friend here," Mega Octane informed the trapped Spychanger. He started volleying powerful punches at Midnight, who, by moving his upper body side to side, was managing to dodge them. Lex, however, knew Midnight wouldn't be able to keep that up for long and, with the other Autobots fighting other opponents, there was no one else who could help him. Without really thinking about it, she frantically searched the wreckage for something, anything. Then, she spotted a long, pointed metal rod and grabbed it. Hotshot saw her skating towards the Decepticon.

"Lex, stay back," he called, but she didn't listen. With a call like a battle cry, Lex thrust the rod deep into Mega Octane's calf as if it were a sword. The Decepticon screamed in pain and surprise. He turned around and discovered Lex with the weapon that was dripping with energon.

"I'm going to make you pay for that, human germ," he growled as he reached for her. That was all the provocation Midnight needed to find the strength he needed to free himself of the beams that imprisoned him. Just when the Decepticon's hand was about to enclose itself around the girl, Midnight grabbed the robot by the back of his neck, picked him up and squeezed. This was a technique he happened to have picked up from Lex herself. The pain was more intense than anything Mega Octane had ever felt before, which gave him the clue that he really provoked this particular Autobot.

"You will not touch her," Midnight hissed before he threw him to ground.

"Hey," called R.E.V., "could someone help me out of here? My legs are going numb." After Lex and Midnight shared a smile, the train-bot went to go help his comrade.

Shortly after that, Scourge called off the attack and he and his troops retreated. After they were out of sight, Midnight looked down at Lex and smiled, "Thanks, Lex". Caught totally off guard, Lex gave a questioning expression. Midnight decided to take a different approach.

"Lex, you just saved my life. Why did you do it?"

"Well, you saved my life once."

"So that's it? You were only repaying a debt?"

"No, that's not what I meant. It's. . because . . you're my . . friend."

"And, that's what friends do--they help each other."

"Yeah, something like that. We watch each other's back."

As the two were talking, the other Autobots watched from a short distance. "I don't get it," said W.A.R.S.

"It's very simple W.A.R.S.," replied R.E.V.

"You see Lex really did care about Midnight Express, but the problem was that because she had spent so much time not forming any new relationships with anyone else, something's as simple as friendship had become foreign to her."

"I see," said Ironhide. "That's why she's been so shy around us; she'd forgotten what friendship was."

Just as everyone was heading home for the night, Lex called to Midnight.

"Yo, Midnight."

"Yes Lex."

"Um . . . I guess I just wanted to say that . . . I think you look pretty heroic, standing against the moon. See ya, Midnight."

As Lex bladed off into the distance, Midnight pleasingly smiled. "Goodnight Lex. You go, girl!" he chuckled as he thought of how selflessly and bravely Lex stepped in to help him during the battle. Then, he transformed to train mode, and raced after his friends.


	5. Guardian

Disclaimer: Ben and Nicki are my characters. I don't own Transformers.

* * *

It was a warm, sunny day. Nicki Jomei was waiting at a small cafe when finally, the blue sportscar that was Nicki's ride showed up. She helped herself into the passenger seat, and in the driver's seat was Koji. "Thanks for picking me up, Sideburn," she said.

"Hey, no problem, Nicki," Sideburn replied. As the Autobot drove down the street, a young man whose face was hidden behind a newspaper earlier brought it down. He saw, when he dared to peek, and heard, the whole thing and gave a friendly smile.

The next day, Nicki was at the cemetery, visiting her brother's grave. She had just fingered some of the letters on the headstone when she heard a car coming and saw that it was her parents who had come to pick her up. When she left, the same man that was at the cafe walked up to the grave. When he was sure he was alone, he knelt down, placed his palm on the name, and closed his eyes. Many thoughts began to race through his mind. It was nearly dark when the young man finally stood up and disappeared amongst the headstones as he walked away.

A few days later, the Build Team got into another little skirmish with the Decepticons. Nicki took cover by a cliffside. However, a laser blast struck the overhang of the cliff and it fell right for Nicki. Just when it looked like it was all over for her, Nicki felt herself being picked up and moved away from the spot real fast. She heard the boulder crash to the ground. Before she could turn to face him, a man's voice said, "Hurry, get outta here." She found the man's voice familiar somehow, but she obeyed without turning back. This time, she took a post on a small hill where she could still see the battlefield, but from a safe distance. She hoped the man got away safely, too.

When it became apparent that they were losing, Mega Octane gave the order to retreat. However, when they were no more than three miles from the former battlefield, they transformed and turned around. "But before we go too far," mused Mega Octane, "lets teach those amateurs that sometimes victory comes with a price." Each one of them locked their weapons onto Hightower.

"Twin laser cannons."

"Moon laser."

"Plasma mortar."

"Roto-Gun."

"Cannon laser."

At the prior battlefield, the man that saved Nicki called, "Hightower, behind you!" Hightower turned behind him, and the last thing he saw and felt were the combined weapons of the Decepticons and the deadly force that struck him from the chest to the abdomen. He fell to the ground and exhaled his last breath.

Everyone stood dumbstruck, not believing what they had just witnessed, until Wedge ran to his fallen comrade and pressed his hands on Hightower's mid-section, which was leaking a lot of energon. Grimlock joined him in the act. Nicki could be heard calling Hightower's name and was running back to the group. She would have joined his side with Wedge and Grimlock if the man hadn't stopped her. She stood there, tears welling up in her eyes. Wedge took a minute to scoop up and cradle Hightower's upper body in his arms while Grimlock continued to apply pressure on the wounds. Hightower was extremely limp, and when he didn't stir, Heavy Load walked up to him. He took out an instrument from his subspace compartment and placed it on Hightower's chest. 'That's not a good sign,' Wedge said to himself as the vital energon started to ooze out between his fingers. Heavy Load's expression was grave. Hightower still had an electro-pulse, but it was weak and his sparkbeats were spaced too far apart. When Wedge looked at him, Heavy Load sadly shook his head and removed the instrument.

"Even if we were to get him to the base, considering he survived the trip, there's nothing Tai would be able to do," he said quietly. "Besides," Heavy Load continued, "you and Grimlock did all you could, but he's lost too much energon." Slowly, Wedge and Grimlock lifted their hands from Hightower's abdomen. After a few seconds of just staring at the fallen bot's inert face, Wedge clenched his energon drenched hands and screamed a cry of agony and hatred. As long as breathed, this crime was not going to go unavenged.

Until he stepped up, the man that had saved Nicki and tried to warn Hightower was totally forgotten. He climbed onto Hightower's chest and said to the bots, "Stand back." When they did, the man knelt down, closed his eyes, and started breathing deeply. Then, an outline of yellow light started to surround his form. During a passage of one minute, the surrounding crowd watched in awe. Suddenly, the outline became a bright and brilliant blast of yellow light. However, as bright as the light was, it didn't blind the onlookers and they could still see the man and Hightower.

'This is starting to look familiar,' Nicki thought as she remembered a light of the same nature. Next thing they saw was something that seemed to be growing and flexing from the man's back. It was a wing; beautifully white and regal looking. They noticed something else happening on the man's back. A second wing had appeared. The light that was enveloping the man's form now increased in size. Now, from where she was standing, Nicki could feel the same radiance she felt the night when Wedge was incapacitated in the repair bay. Without warning, the light not only tripled in size, but it also blinded the onlookers. Nicki and the Build Team were forced to shield their eyes. After a minute, the light's brightness faded, and the group was able to see what was going on. They saw that Hightower's fatal wounds were gone, almost as if they were never there. They finally dared to come closer to get a better look, and the man didn't stop them. In fact, it looked as if he welcomed their presence. Suddenly, as Hightower gasped in a breath, his optics glowed the same bright yellow light and quickly returned to their normal black color. He was alive. The man hopped off just as Hightower began to sit up.

"Hightower?" said Wedge.

"Wedge?" Hightower replied, and the next thing he knew, he was the center of a laughing ring his friends formed around him, nearly piling on top of him.

"He'll be alright now," said the winged man. Finally, seeing him clearly for the first time, Nicki recognized his face.

"Ben?" she gasped, and he nodded.

"It's been a long time, sis," he replied.

"I've been watching over you, Mom, and Dad ever since the moment I left this realm. So, you could say I'm kind of a guardian angel for our family. Then, when I saw how you had become real good friends with the Build Team and how their leader and I were so much alike, they became my friends too. The first time I intervened was the time Wedge was stuck in Limbo."

"So you were the winged man that helped me out that night!" exclaimed Wedge.

"And, you were the angel I saw?" asked Nicki. Ben nodded with a smile. "So," Nicki continued, "none of what we experienced that day was a dream?" Ben thought about it for a moment.

"In a way, it wasn't a dream," he began. "You see, Nicki, because you were still pretty tired, your consciousness ended up being in that weird state where you're not quite awake, and yet, you're not asleep."

"Ben, you mentioned the first time you intervened in mortal affairs was that night when Wedge was incapacitated. Why did you intervene now?" Grimlock inquired.

Once again, Ben smiled, "Same reason why I helped Wedge; it wasn't his time, so, I just used my powers to make his life-force strong again and convinced him to come back." When everyone surrounded him with quizzical expressions, he explained further. "Well, you see, because I'm not an official guardian angel, I'm unable to do some things they can do, like say, for instance-bring recently departed souls back to their bodies."

Heavy Load gasped, "In other words, bringing people back from the dead?"

"Basically, yes," Ben confirmed. Suddenly, Ben went on the alert and looked up at the sky, as if he had just sensed something.

"What is it?" Wedge asked.

"I have to go now," was Ben's reply, "It's time for me to go back."

"Where are you going?" Nicki asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"To a place where I can continue to watch over you, our family, and friends until we're together again," he said as he reassuringly stroked her cheek. With a smile, Nicki clasped her angel-brother's hand in hers as she felt the same gentle, warm, and powerful radiance she had begun to know so well. As Ben turned to leave, he and his sister purposely let go of each other's hands slowly.

When Ben reached the spot, Hightower called to him, "Ben, I just wanted to say thanks for helping me."

"All for a friend," was Ben's final reply. After that, the yellow light surrounded Ben's form, he spread out his wings, and, with a giant leap, took flight up into the heavens. The team on the ground followed him until they couldn't see him anymore.


End file.
